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How to Prepare a Motion Record in Ontario

A practical guide for lawyers, paralegals, and law clerks

A motion record is the bound (now usually electronic) package of everything the judge or associate judge needs to decide your motion. In Ontario civil proceedings, its contents and order come from Rule 37.10 of the Rules of Civil Procedure. A record that is complete, paginated, and easy to navigate is not just a formality — it is often the first impression the court has of your motion.

What goes in a motion record

The moving party's motion record is assembled in this order:

Table of contents — describing each document, including each exhibit, by its nature and date;
Notice of motion;
All affidavits and other evidence to be relied on, with exhibits;
Relevant transcripts of examinations (or the relevant extracts);
Any other material required for the hearing of the motion.

The responding party may serve a responding motion record containing a table of contents and any additional affidavits or material to be relied on, where the moving party's record is incomplete for the purposes of the response.

Formatting requirements that trip people up

Consecutive page numbering. Pages of the record are numbered consecutively from start to finish — not per-document. Exhibits count.
Tabs. Each document gets its own tab, lettered or numbered to match the table of contents.
The table of contents must actually describe the documents. "Affidavit" is not enough — "Affidavit of Jane Smith, sworn March 3, 2026" is what the court expects, with the exhibit descriptions underneath.
Cover page. Court file number, style of cause, the court, and the name of the record ("Motion Record of the Moving Party, returnable [date]").

Electronic filing and Case Center

Most Ontario civil motions are now filed electronically (through Justice Services Online) and heard from documents uploaded to Case Center (formerly CaseLines). Two practical consequences:

Your PDF must be navigable. The court's guidance calls for electronic documents that are searchable and bookmarked or hyperlinked, so a judge can click from the table of contents directly to a tab or exhibit rather than scrolling through hundreds of pages.
File naming matters. Case Center documents should follow the naming conventions in the applicable practice direction (document type, party, and date), so they sort correctly in the hearing bundle.

Tip: a hyperlinked table of contents — where each entry links to the first page of its document — is the single biggest usability difference between a record the court finds easy to work with and one it doesn't. Judges routinely comment on it.

Common mistakes to avoid

Page numbers restarting at each tab (they must run consecutively);
Table of contents page references that don't match the actual pages after a last-minute document swap;
Scanned, non-searchable exhibits;
Missing transcript extracts the factum relies on;
Serving one version and filing another after edits.

Timelines

The moving party's record must be served and filed within the timelines in Rule 37.10 — generally at least seven days before the hearing, with the responding record at least four days before. Always check the current Rules and any regional practice direction, as timelines and filing methods are updated from time to time.

Skip the manual formatting

BundleMaker builds court-ready bundles automatically — cover page, hyperlinked table of contents, tab dividers, and page numbering — from the documents you upload. US$29/year, unlimited bundles.

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Related guides

This guide is general information for legal professionals, not legal advice. Court rules and practice directions change — always confirm the current requirements of the court you are filing in before you file.